Cold Front To Bring Frost, Drier Conditions In The Next Two Weeks

Wild weather across the Corn Belt could slow down as temperatures dive. According to meteorologists, frost could hit parts of the Corn Belt Oct. 1 or sooner.

“I do thoroughly believe that a good frost is in the cards, low to mid-30s, at the very end of September,” Kirk Hinz, meteorologist at BAMWX.com told AgriTalk Host Chip Flory. “The signal at this distance has plenty of support for the upper Midwest, northern Iowa and very far north Illinois into Michigan.”

“I’m at 93 degrees right now, so when we bring that cold front through and we start getting low temperatures into the upper 30s in the next 10 days,” he adds. “It’s a brutal, drastic change.”

For late-planted corn and soybeans this could be troubling. More mature crops likely won’t experience much damage. Many parts of the Corn Belt were ahead on maturity, too.

“We really haven’t had a cold October since back in 2009 or so,” said Michael Clark, BAMWX.com meteorologist on AgriTalk. “I don’t think this is going to be just a huge problem, but I do think we are dealing with something that we haven’t been used to over the course of the last six to eight years.”

Eastern south Dakota, southern Minnesota and northern Iowa have been the bullseye of heavy rain over the past three months, Hinz says. It looks like rain could continue for the next six to 10 days.

“This amount of rainfall this widespread is not what I would call normal… In fact, when you look at the percent of normal precipitation forecast over the next 10 days the majority of the grain belt is averaging 350% of the normal,” Clark said. “The good thing is when we bring the cold front in we will dry out pretty significantly.”

October will likely be a colder-then-normal month with some opportunity for precipitation in the second week, Clark added.